


Careful

by PresAlex



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Jacobi kills some people, M/M, POV Alternating, This is as softie Kepler as it's going to get folks, Trans Daniel Jacobi, its not plot relevant but that man is trans, temporary deafness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 23:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15497406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PresAlex/pseuds/PresAlex
Summary: Jacobi gets injured on a mission and Kepler takes care of him





	Careful

By all means, the mission was over. Maxwell was sitting in a van three block away monitoring Kepler and Jacobi through the security cameras whose footage was pulled up on two different computer screens. The third screen contained an ongoing download-- the file that Kepler had just sent her from the facility.

-

While Jacobi had kept the guards busy in a different room, Kepler had slipped into the back room of the facility. It had been easy to find the files that he was tasked to take, and just as easy to quickly send the file Maxwell’s way and delete it from the facility’s software. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t done before; just terrorizing a community of scientists and stealing sensitive information from them for Mr. Cutter. All in a day’s work for the SI-5, really. Kepler donned the lab coat he’d stolen, stuck his USB in the front pocket, radioed to his team that he had completed his part of the mission and began purposefully striding from the room towards the back door so that he could safely meet up with Maxwell.

-

Once the mission objective had been completed, Jacobi received two messages from both of the members of his team. One message, from Alana, stated that Kepler had just sent her the files which she was currently downloading and he was heading now to the back door. The second was an order from Kepler that told him to detonate the bomb. There wasn’t much wiggle room. It was either detonate the bomb as Kepler asked, or undo the weeks of research and work they’d put into this easy-ass mission. So he hit the button to activate his bomb which he had placed in the room not ten minutes ago before Kepler sent the guards to his location. He heard Alana growl something about ‘Getting the fuck out of there, Jacobi’ which spurred him towards the door. Ten seconds should be enough to get out of the room he was in and get far enough that he wouldn’t be blasted into smithereens alongside this fucking laboratory.

As he flung open the door and made for a run, a large hand gripped the hair at the back of his head and _tugged_. Jacobi lost his footing and fell back into the body of the security guard who had just well and truly fucked up his escape.

“And where do you think you’re going.” The guard growled, reaching for something from his back pocket (maybe a pair of handcuffs? Maybe a gun?)

Jacobi shot a look, which is meant to be tired but probably aired somewhere closer on the side of panicked, towards the security camera in the hallway outside the door. He distantly heard Alana say something to Kepler through their shared communications link, but he couldn’t make out any words over the pounding of his heartbeat and the countdown in his head. There wasn’t any time for this. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

There was no way he’d be able to shake off this guard in his remaining three seconds, so Jacobi held still, counting down in his head. At one, he threw himself violently forward, putting his whole weight into the maneuver. He had a split second to dive and roll behind the other half of the double doors which was closed. Kepler yelled something, and then everything was hot, loud, and searingly painful. The door behind his back was metal and it was heating quickly with the power of the explosion.

He’d been too close to that explosion. Far enough away that all he might have gotten was a couple burns from the door and from the wave of scalding hot air which flew from the open half of the door right beside his head. Once he was sure he would be able to stand without risking anything like being exploded or falling over, he pulled himself to his feet. He thought he might have burnt his hands in the process, but he was too busy to be sure.

He grabbed his gun from where he’d he’d tucked it into his jacket, and ran. On the way, he put a finger to the earpiece he was wearing to make sure it was still there. He opened his mouth and said a quick report to Alana and Kepler who were surely sitting together in a van three blocks away staring at him through one of the security cameras.

-

“The bomb’s been--uh….” Kepler and Maxwell heard Jacobi’s voice crackle through the speaker in the car. His voice sounded slightly slurred and they exchanged a look, “Hello? Ah shit”

“Jacobi. Report.”

“Ah fuck. Shit shit shit…”

“Jacobi?”

On screen they watched Jacobi tap the earpiece again, snap his fingers on either side of his head, and then deflate. Maxwell and Kepler exchanged a confused glance as the little Jacobi the screen gave up trying to get in touch with them and ran towards the door. The speaker continued to project the sounds of what was going on around Jacobi as he ran as well as the sound of his laboured breathing as he ran. Maxwell and Kepler continued to try for any kind of response from Jacobi but eventually gave up when no answer seemed to be coming.

-

As he ran through the hallways, searching by memory for the path that Kepler had mentioned before entering the building which led to the back door. Everything sounded startlingly murky even though it should have been chaotic around him. In one of his ears, he couldn't hear anything save for a high pitched ringing, and all the sound in the other ears seemed as though it were coming at him through three pairs of earmuffs. If the flashing lights lining the hall were anything to go by, the fire alarms were going off by now. It was due to the poor hearing that he was experiencing that someone was able to get the jump on him for the second time that evening. Once again he was jerked back by a hand grabbing at him. This time they pulled him back by the collar of his jacket, and suddenly there was a knife at his throat and his gun had clattered to the floor. He was sure the guy was talking to him. He was sure his breaths were coming in short pants from the adrenaline and the running. He was sure Maxwell and Kepler were trying to reach him through the useless earpiece in his useless ear.

Using the momentum from being pulled back, Jacobi shoved himself against the man. He twisted in his grasp to drive the heel of his shoe back into the man’s crotch. The hand that was fisted in the back of his collar lost its grip, but he felt the blade dig deep enough into the side of his neck that he knew he would probably need stitches. The adrenaline pumping through his system allowed the blood to flow quickly from where he’d been cut, making the man’s grip on the knife slick. Jacobi leaned as far from the knife as possible before twisting it out of his attacker’s hand. In one fluid movement, he spun around and slit the man’s throat with his own blade, not leaving until he knew the man was beyond help. The eerie, muddled quiet stayed with him as he watched the man bleed out on the floor. He found himself wishing he could hear if more people were coming, but he was out of luck on that front it appeared.

Finally, he found his way to the back door Kepler had talked about before they’d arrived. It felt like it had been hours but he had probably only been in the building a total of half an hour. The wound in his neck was oozing blood still as he pushed open the back door and broke into a sprint. Once he arrived at the van, he rapped twice on the door for them to open it, it was a weird sight, seeing himself knocking with none of the usual noise accompanying it aside from the loud ringing. The door swung open just as silently and his teammates ushered him into the van. Maxwell sat in the front seat, deleting the last of the camera footage while Kepler stepped on the gas. In lieu of being able to partake in any conversation, Jacobi turned to stare out the window.

It would take them approximately twenty minutes to reach the motel at which Goddard had reserved three rooms for after the mission. They would be flying back to base tomorrow once they’d finished every part of what they came here for. Jacobi watched the yellow of the streetlights fly past. He was pretty sure Kepler was speeding, but he wasn’t sure he cared.

His suspicions were confirmed when the car pulled up to their rooms just about twelve minutes later. He stayed sitting, staring out the window until someone opened the door in front of his face, causing him to jump. He hadn’t heard anyone get out of the car yet. Obviously. Alana was staring at him and holding her bag. It looked like she was expecting an answer of some kind, but he hadn’t known she’d asked anything. Instead of thinking about it, Jacobi turned away to undo his seatbelt. He was startled when a hand (Kepler’s hand?) reached out to the side of his head, pushing his hair back, exposing his ear. A moment passed where he sat, being watched by Maxwell and Kepler, with the Major’s hand seemingly caressing the side of his head. Alana waved her hand in front of his face and he snapped his head over to them. She was saying something. The sound of which was reminiscent of being in a public pool and hearing someone yell whilst underwater. He slowly drug his eyes down to her lips and stared, trying to make out even a word of what she was saying. She could have been saying something about blood, but honestly, he couldn’t really tell.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kepler roll his eyes and begin typing on his phone. A few seconds later, Kepler’s ‘notes’ app was shoved in his face.

‘We need to know if any of this blood is yours. There’s blood on your ears, so I’m assuming you aren’t just being a jackass by ignoring everything we say, but that you actually ruptured an eardrum in that poorly time escape.’

Jacobi nodded sourly and then pointed to the wound on the other side of his neck. Kepler nodded back and turned to say something to Maxwell who glared, but turned towards her motel room. Before she got too far though, Jacobi reached out to catch her sleeve and hugged her goodnight. She smiled very slightly and head into her room. The ringing in his ears hadn’t subsided. In fact, it had probably gotten more annoying than it was ten minutes ago. Kepler grabbed both of Jacobi’s bags and gestured for him to follow. He guessed they were sharing then. Even though Kepler was holding two room keys.

-

Once in the room, Kepler dropped the bags next to the bed. He lead Jacobi into the bathroom. Kepler had to admit, the silence was a welcome change from the usual sarcastic rambling that spilled from Jacobi’s mouth whenever there was any lull in any conversation. The man truly seemed to be unable to stand any form of silence, which was sort of ironic, he thought. He pulled the first aid kit from his duffel bag and returned to his-- to Jacobi. He started with the easiest task at hand, cleaning up the blood that was dried in and around his ears. He found himself being more gentle than usual and reasoned with himself that it was because he couldn’t think of any way to warn Jacobi before cleaning off the blood. Even though Kepler was in full view, Daniel still jumped with the cold cotton swab was pressed against his ear. He threaded his fingers through the shorter man’s hair, gently tilting his head to get better access, reveling in the way he obeyed even without being directly told to.

To properly clean the gash on the other man’s neck, Kepler helped him strip off his slightly sticky, blood-soaked shirt. While drenching another cotton swab in antiseptic, he raked his eyes over his subordinate’s torso and arms, looking for other injuries. His eyes skipped over the scars that were peppered across his upper arms, along with the twin half moon scars on his chest, and the two bullet scars in his shoulder, before eventually landing on a burn which peaked over from his back. His eyes also find the first degree burns covering Jacobi’s palms and he sighed, setting down the bottle and cotton swab in favour of finding some burn ointment that he can quickly apply to these spots. Jacobi continues to sit, watching him silently. There’s a confused look in his eyes that could be due to any number of things but that Kepler can’t help but feel is there due to his uncharacteristic carefulness.

Upon finding the ointment, Kepler gently massaged it into the man’s palms. Jacobi hissed loudly when he first touched the burns and Kepler almost immediately dropped his hands before remembering what he was supposed to be doing. After, he placed one hand on Jacobi’s knee and coaxed him into turning so that Kepler could get a look at the burns on his back. They didn’t seem as bad as the ones on his palms, likely because his shirt was protecting him, but Kepler still took the same amount of care as he lightly massaged the ointment into the small of Jacobi’s back and into the burn that stretches from his shoulder blade to the crook of his neck.

Jacobi’s breathing seemed to have relaxed which the Major couldn’t help but feel grateful for as he turned Jacobi back towards him and reached for his previously discarded cotton swab. The muted brown-ish red that coats his skin on one side from where the blood had soaked through Jacobi’s black shirt was tacky and Kepler gave up with the cotton swab after the first few swipes in favour of wetting one of the motel’s face cloths with warm water in the sink. When the cloth scrubbed a bit too close to the wound on his neck, Jacobi’s eyes flew open and he grit his teeth, one of his burnt hands reaching up to cling to Kepler’s wrist. A moment later, Jacobi cleared his throat, swallowed, and took his hand back, leaving an uncomfortable mark where the ointment transferred onto Kepler’s skin. He arched one of his eyebrows, giving Jacobi a scathing glance. He applied a bit more pressure than is necessary to the cut for the next couple strokes, ignoring the quietly pained groans that Jacobi seemed to be trying to stifle.

When the majority of the blood is cleaned off, he tapped his pointer finger against Jacobi’s forehead, wanting him to open his eyes so that he could have at least some kind of warning before there was a needle in his flesh. Dutifully, Jacobi cracked open his eyes. He looked tired and slightly pale from blood loss. Kepler slid his hand from where he had rested it against Jacobi’s forehead up into the tangled hair on top of his head. The smaller man tilted his head up to look into his eyes, leaning into Kepler’s touch. His eyes fluttered down to Kepler’s other hand which held the hooked needle. He took a deep breath and made a pained sound of affirmation in the back of his throat.

-

Somehow, with one of his senses not accounted for, the pain of the needle felt all that more intense. Jacobi screwed his eyes shut once again, clenching his fists. He tried to focus on the pain of his nails biting into his burnt palms instead of the needle piercing his flesh, but everytime he finally started to do just that, Kepler noticed what he was doing and carefully pried his fingernails away from the irritated skin. Thus, the stitches took far longer than he would have hoped.

Kepler’s gentleness was very out of character, but Jacobi wasn't complaining. When it was just the two of them together it was...different, but not usually this soft. Kepler’s hands, calloused from fighting and from using various weapons, were soothing as they massaged ointment into his palms and as he tried to calm Jacobi by smoothing his hands through his hair. When he noticed Jacobi breathing heavily through his nose due to the pain, he paused on the last couple of his stitches and rubbed a thumb under Jacobi’s eyes, questioning. Jacobi just nodded and the larger man went back to pinching the skin around the wound and sewing the needle through with medical precision. At the sound of the last snip of the scissors cutting the thread of the last stitch, Jacobi sighed, allowing the tension to drain from his body.

The bathroom smelt strongly of antiseptic and iron. Jacobi’s breath still came in hot pain induced pants, which danced across his bare chest and the back of Kepler’s hand. Kepler swabbed up the last of the blood that had leaked out of the wound while he was doing stitches. Even when everything was finished and Jacobi had been treated, Kepler continued kneeling in front of him between his knees.

It was bizarre for Jacobi to find himself looking down at Kepler. Kepler was watching him, calculated. Slowly, his hands came up to rest against Jacobi’s rib cage, thumbs rubbing softly against the scars on his chest. Through the murkiness and the ringing, if Jacobi concentrated, he could have sworn Warren was humming something.

The adrenaline was wearing off. Jacobi could feel his eyelids drooping. His chest felt warm under Kepler’s fingertips but the rest of him felt cold. Dozily, he raised his hands up. One of his hands rested overtop of Kepler’s hand, and the other traveled up to grip one of the Major’s shoulders. Kepler’s hands were big enough that Jacobi’s hardly covered his at all--a thought which was quickly left his tired brain when Kepler twisted his hand so that their fingers were intertwined.

-

“All right, Daniel.” Kepler said, knowing he wouldn't be able to hear him, “I think you're about falling asleep"

All he received from his subordinate was a curious look which involved him cocking his head to one side and then wincing when it tugged his stitches. Against his better judgment, Kepler felt himself smiling very slightly. He stood up with only mild discomfort from having been kneeling for the better part of an hour. The hand that wasn't intertwined with Jacobi's came up to cup his jaw in order to tilt his head up. As Kepler was standing over him, it was definitely uncomfortable and probably painful for Jacobi to maintain eye contact but he didn’t have much of a choice with Warren gripping his jaw like he was. The kiss he placed on Jacobi's lips was far more gentle than the forced craning of his neck would imply and Jacobi hummed into it. When he pulled away he kept Jacobi's neck craned up at him for a moment more, watching his eyes get slightly watery from the pressure on the new stitches.

-

The men slept in the same bed that night despite Cutter having bought them separate bedrooms. The major kept his subordinate held close, his head tucked under his chin, legs intertwined.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over at @crykea on tumblr :) thx 4 reading  
> this is my first wolf 359 fic but....i just love si-5...... so i wrote this  
> It's unedited so i hope its ok? i woke up at 5am needing to write this lol  
> may b a bit ooc but shrug


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